Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, KG, Earl Marshal (1517 – 19 January 1547) was an English aristocrat, and one of the founders of modern English poetry . Life He was born in Hunsdon, Hertfordshire, England, the eldest son of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and his second wife, Lady Elizabeth Stafford (daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham), so he was descended from kings on both sides of his family tree. He was reared at Windsor Castle with Henry VIII's illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy Duke of Richmond, and they became close friends and, later, brothers-in-law. He became Earl of Surrey in 1524 when his grandfather died and his father became Duke of Norfolk. In 1532 he accompanied his first cousin Anne Boleyn, the King, and the Duke of Richmond to France, staying there for more than a year as a member of the entourage of Francis I of France. In 1536 his first son, Thomas (later 4th Duke of Norfolk), was born, Anne Boleyn was executed on charges of adultery and treason, and Henry Fitzroy died at the age of 17 and was buried at one of the Howard homes, Thetford Abbey. That was also the year Henry — who took after his father and grandfather in military prowess — served with his father against the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion protesting the dissolution of the monasteries. Marriage and issue He married Lady Frances de Vere, the daughter of John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford and Elizabeth Trussell, Countess of Oxford. They had five children: *Jane Howard *Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (10 March 1536 – 2 June 1572) married (1) Mary FitzAlan (2) Margaret Audley (3) Elizabeth Leyburne * Margaret Howard, married Henry Scrope, 9th Baron Scrope of Bolton *Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton * Catherine Howard, married Henry Berkeley, 7th Baron Berkeley, by whom she had issue. * Death and burial He was imprisoned with his father by Henry VIII, who was convinced that Henry Howard had planned to usurp the crown from his son Edward. Henry Howard was sentenced to death on 13 January 1547, and beheaded for treason on 19 January 1547. (His father was saved only by his execution being set for the day after the king happened to die). His son Thomas became heir to the Dukedom of Norfolk instead, inheriting it on the 3rd Duke's death in 1554. Henry Howard is buried in a spectacular painted alabaster tomb at St Michael the Archangel, Framlingham. Ancestry Ancestors of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey ''' Writing Howard and his friend Sir Thomas Wyatt were the first English poets to write in the sonnet form that Shakespeare later used, and Howard was the first English poet to publish blank verse in his translation of the second and fourth books of Virgil's Aeneid. Together, Wyatt and Surrey, due to their excellent translations of Petrarch's sonnets, are known as "Fathers of the English Sonnet." While Wyatt introduced the sonnet into English, it was Surrey who gave them the rhyming meter and the division into quatrains that now characterizes the sonnets variously named English, Elizabethan or Shakespearean sonnets.The Shakespearean SonnetSonnets Publications * The Poems of Henry Howard Earl of Surrey (edited by F.M. Padelford). Seattle, 1920 and 1928.Selected Poetry of Henry Howard, earl of Surrey (1517?-1547), Representative Poetry Online, University of Toronto, UToronto.ca, Web, Dec. 22, 2011. * Selected Poems by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and Dennis Keene''. Fyfield Books.'' * The Poems of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (edited with a Memoir by James Yeowell) See also * List of British poets References *''House of Treason: the Rise and Fall of a Tudor Dynasty'' by Robert Hutchinson, 2009 * A Tudor Tragedy: Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk by Neville Williams, 1989 * The Ebbs and Flows of Fortune: Life of Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk by David M. Head, 1995 *''Henry VIII's Last Victim: The Life and Times...'' by Jessie Childs, 2008 Notes External links ;Poems *Selected Poetry of Henry Howard, earl of Surrey (1517?-1547) (14 poems) at Representative Poetry Online. *Henry Howard Earl of Surrey 1517-1547 at the Poetry Foundation. * Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547) at Sonnet Central. * Henry Howard at PoemHunter. ;About *Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey in the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, *Sir Henry Howard biography and poems. * Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547) at Luminarium. ;Etc. *"Complaint of the Absence of Her Lover Being upon the Sea" set to music From the 1990 concept album “Tyger and Other Tales” Category:1517 births Category:1547 deaths Category:Courtesy earls Category:English poets Category:Heirs apparent who never acceded Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey Category:Knights of the Garter Category:People executed by decapitation Category:People executed for treason against England Category:People executed under the Tudors Howard, Henry, Earl of Surrey Category:Sonneteers Category:Executed English people Category:Prisoners in the Tower of London Category:People of the Tudor period Category:Portrait by Hans Holbein the younger Category:16th-century poets Category:Poets Category:English-language poets